Bio Dante Novario is an internationally published writer who lives in Louisville, KY where he works as a therapist with special needs individuals. His writing has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Firewords Magazine, ANGLES, KAIROS, Thin Air Magazine, Still: The Journal, Ghost City Press, Jersey Devil Press, The River Magazine and others. His poetry […]
Troy Schoultz – Rock On
Rock On It’s ninety degrees in the VIP area which resemblesRecess for prisoners of war. My buddy of thirty years isAn alcoholic Peter Pan, torn, faded Iron Maiden shirtChain-smoking, two four packs of Milwaukee’s Best tall boys to the windAnd a twenty borrowed from me that I’ll never see change for.I’m worn down with a […]
Ben Nardolilli – Dissertation, Defenestration, and Defense
Dissertation, Defenestration, and Defense Engaging in dialogues with my walls,occasionally shouting at the shadows,who is the Socrates here, who is the Plato? There is humor, there is cleverness,there is a mind in the room that seemsto be the most pre-eminent one in creation Does it dare go outside, and spoilthe conversation between the echoes here?the […]
John Tustin – Single Stone
Single Stone The waves shatter upon the stone.The stone that sits mightily In its dense superiority.The waves come and they come,These endless waves that are but many drops of waterComing together to butt upUpon this single stone.The water is endless. The waves come and come.The stone sits resolute in place. The waves shatter upon the […]
Thomas Elson – Red Napkin
The dinner – turkey, latkes, dressing, gravy, and my wife’s cauliflower and black olive salad – impeccably set upon a red tablecloth with white lace placemats – reminded me of the red cassock and white lace chasuble I had worn decades before as an altar boy at midnight Mass. Resting on the lace placemats were […]
Robert Beveridge – Godly Beings
Godly Beings so it’s a week later and I sit here with a bottle and a candle and think about how you used to make fun of me for my Southern Comfort and Diet Coke (no ice) while you did shots of Jack, and how we always ended up with your hair in a knot […]
Mark J. Mitchell – Day Ends
Day Ends Muscles, stretched and tiedby blind sea scouts are fighting with bones that have been dug upby clumsy archeologists. The sun is pattingthe bay goodnightright under its bridge.It comforts your body. BioMark J. Mitchell was born in Chicago and grew up in southern California. His latest poetry collection, Roshi San Francisco, was just […]
Lori Cramer – Three Tiny Pieces
Omissions He never brought me home to meet his mother—or, for that matter, anyone in his family. Boys like him don’t end up with girls like me. Everybody knows that. But we chose to ignore the obvious, decided we’d play pretend for a little while. He feigned ignorance about the ones who’d preceded him, bad […]
Linda M. Crate – love your children
love your children i used to write poemsto the father i never met,used to wish to meet him onstars shooting through the skies;but he never showed hisface—i was told he was a monster,but in my mind he was simplyan angel whose wings were tornfrom his body in the jealousmaw of those who sought to shoothim […]
Miriam Steinbach – Breakfast in Bed
Breakfast in Bed Morning, againthere is coffee brewing in the kitchen downstairs buthere, your lips taste like cream andmine are dripping with honey Here, light is sliced on bedsheets like banana bread andyour eyes are sunny sideeach pupil a yolkswimming in sleepy white Here, you laugh like pepper,smile like salt andmelt my butter hipswith your […]